Responding to Sandy Hook: part three...

NOTE:  Part three of my on-going essay/reflection about what must be done in the days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  In part one I outlined a four part overview; in part two I tried to give my personal context.  Now in part three I try to summarize what the political response has been - and why that matters.  I will want to, of course, deepen my words re: our grassroots commitment to stay the course because even politicians of good will must seek re-election.

And so begins what I see as a three pronged fight for rational gun control in the United States:  a) responsible gun owners will begin to speak out against the current madness; b) politicians searching for middle ground will seek consensus; and c) people of faith and compassion must push the envelope beyond what is expedient so that this kairos moment is not wasted.  Former President Bill Clinton cut to the chase when he said on January 9, 2013:  “I grew up in the hunting culture, but this is nuts. Why does anybody need a 30 round clip for a gun? Why does anybody need one of those things that carries 100 bullets? The guy in Colorado had one of those.”

Half of all mass killings in the United States have occurred since the assault weapons ban expired in 2005 - half, in all of the history of the country. So, I hope that former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and other people who stepped up after the Newtown tragedy will have some impact on this.  And there are going to need to be some armed guards in some schools where there is a higher crime rate and kids themselves may take weapons to school, absolutely. But it is not an excuse not to deal with this issue.

Former commander of the US war in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, framed the conversation like this:  “I spent a career carrying typically either an M16 or an M4 Carbine.  An M4 Carbine fires a .223 caliber round which is 5.56 mm at about 3000 feet per second. When it hits a human body, the effects are devastating. It’s designed for that.  That’s what our soldiers ought to carry. I personally don’t think there’s any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America.”

We’ve got to take a serious look—I understand everyone’s desire to have whatever they want—but we’ve got to protect our children, we’ve got to protect our police, we’ve got to protect our population. Serious action is necessary. Sometimes we talk about very limited actions on the edges and I just don’t think that’s enough. The number of people in America killed by firearms is extraordinary compared to other nations, and I don’t think we’re a bloodthirsty country. We need to look at everything we can do to safeguard our people.

And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, no darling of any particular political ideology save pragmatism, put it like this:   “It’s time for the president, I think, to stand up and lead and tell this country what we should do — not go to Congress and say, ‘What do you guys want to do?’ This should be his number one agenda. He’s president of the United States. And if he does nothing during his second term, something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns.”  Even the socially conservative pollster, Frank Lutz, has discovered that “87% of non-NRA gun owners and 74% of NRA gun owners support requiring a criminal background check of anyone purchasing a gun.   Further 80% of non-NRA gun owners and 71% of NRA gun owners support prohibiting people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns.” (Brady Campaign)

Adam Gopnik expressed the essence of American utilitarianism when it comes to common sense gun control when he wrote a Jonathan Swift-like article for The New Yorker on December 20, 2012.  “We live, let’s imagine, in a city where children are dying of a ravaging infection. The good news is that its cause is well understood and its cure, an antibiotic, easily at hand. The bad news is that our city council has been taken over by a faith-healing cult that will go to any lengths to keep the antibiotic from the kids.”

Some citizens would doubtless point out meekly that faith healing has an ancient history in our city, and we must regard the faith healers with respect—to do otherwise would show a lack of respect for their freedom to faith-heal. (The faith healers’ proposition is that if there were a faith healer praying in every kindergarten the kids wouldn’t get infections in the first place.) A few Tartuffes would see the children writhe and heave in pain and then wring their hands in self-congratulatory piety and wonder why a good God would send such a terrible affliction on the innocent—surely he must have a plan!

Most of us—every sane person in the city, actually—would tell the faith healers to go to hell, put off worrying about the Problem of Evil till Friday or Saturday or Sunday, and do everything we could to get as much penicillin to the kids as quickly we could.  

 

We do live in such a city. Five thousand seven hundred and forty children and teens died from gunfire in the United States, just in 2008 and 2009. Twenty more, including Olivia Engel, who was seven, and Jesse Lewis, who was six, were killed just last week. Some reports say their bodies weren’t shown to their grief-stricken parents to identify them; just their pictures. The overwhelming majority of those children would have been saved with effective gun control. We know that this is so, because, in societies that have effective gun control, children rarely, rarely, rarely die of gunshots. Let’s worry tomorrow about the problem of Evil. Let’s worry more about making sure that when the Problem of Evil appears in a first-grade classroom, it is armed with a penknife.

And while it is too early to claim with any certainty that this emerging consensus among people of good will can be turned into significant legislative change, more and more Americans are beginning to break free from the propaganda of fear promoted as sacred truth by the NRA and its allies.  The words of top Republican strategist and pollster, Frank Lutz are illustrative again when he spoke on the CBS program “This Morning.”  “The public wants guns out of the schools, not in the schools, and they're not asking for a security official or someone else."  

I don’t think the NRA is listening. I don’t think that they understand. Most Americans would protect the Second Amendment rights and yet agree with the idea that not every human being should own a gun, not every gun should be available at anytime, anywhere, for anyone. That at gun shows, you should not be able to buy something there and then without any kind of check whatsoever. What they're looking for is a common-sense approach that says that those who are law-abiding should continue to have the right to own a weapon, but that you don’t believe the right should be extended to everyone at every time for every type of weapon.

Perhaps, for the first time since the passage of the Brady Act, we are ready to consider the facts.

·        Fact:  Empirical evidence shows that creating even the smallest impediment to crime – any crime from rape and assault to petty theft and gun violence – significantly reduces a criminal’s incentive – and thus makes all crime rarer.   What the New York City police have discovered – despite all theorizing to the contrary – is that crime is “opportunistic.”  When you “build a low annoying walls against criminals… crimes decrease.”  Hard and objective experience dismantles the status-quo arguments that posit “social pressures, slum pathologies, the profits to be made in drug dealing and the ever ascending levels of despair” will always necessitate more guns to defeat an ever more deadly cult of ruthless, social predators.  The facts, however, show that simply making it a little harder to acquire guns will profoundly reduce gun violence because criminals are lazy.

·        Fact:  More guns never create greater safety.  In the Tucson shooting of Representative Giffords, in addition to the weapons of the assailant a number of by-standers were also armed.  Given the chaos, however, they chose not to open fire because no one knew where to direct their deadly fire.  What’s more, states with stricter gun laws have fewer gun murders, fewer suicides and fewer accidental deaths by gun use according to studies conducted by social scientist, David Hemenway of Harvard University.

Gun control matters.  Deterrents save lives.  And in this new gun-wary climate, the political mojo of the moment embraces three mainstream perspectives.  Senator Diane Feinstein of California has proposed the most aggressive and comprehensive legislative changes making the sale, possession and transportation of 100 types of assault weapons illegal.  Her focus would also require a thorough background check for all weapons and ammunition while grand-fathering over 900 weapons clearly identified with hunting and sporting.  The on-line Courage Campaign is one aspect of a coordinated effort to keep public support behind this initiative.

A second political initiative has emerged since the Newtown massacre spearheaded by Gabby Giffords and her husband Frank Kelly, the retired astronaut.  The goal of their super PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, is to offset the political clout of the NRA – which annually spends $24 million on lobbying and political activity – by raising $20 million for the 2014 elections. 

Kelly framed their new work like this:   “I’ve taken a gun to work. I flew in combat in Operation Desert Storm off the USS Midway, carrying a 9-millimeter.

I certainly understand the importance and the right to own a firearm in our country. I certainly get that. Gabby and I want to protect people’s Second Amendment rights. But I personally believe, and so does Gabby, that assault weapons used to kill a lot of people all at once should only be used by the military…  Achieving reform to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources.

And the third political force exploring recommendations for new gun control legislation is the Federal Task Force being coordinated by Vice-President Joe Biden at the directive of President Obama.   The work of this panel will be shared with the public by mid-January 2013 and include the input from Wal-Mart, the film industry and various gun lobbyists including the NRA.  The intensity of public outrage is palpable – and clearly driving political consideration for the first time in decades.  And while all of the aforementioned politicians are committed to the public good – and risk the wrath of NRA demagogues – it will take more than their current explorations to get legislation passed. 

Real change – concerning gun laws and our culture of violence – requires profound grassroots organizing, teaching, prayer and reflection.  James E. Atwood, a pastor from Columbine, CO who was at ground zero in the aftermath of that attack, urges congregations – and social organizations of all types – to remain vigilant in the fight against our American culture of violence.  This is a time for a spiritual awakening:  a sustained vigil against a uniquely American cultural religion that simultaneously advocates killing our scape goats while denying that these same acts of mass domestic terrorism are destroying the fabric of our society. 

 In his all too timely book, America and Its Guns, Atwood asks us to remember that often our leaders chose to keep us deluded and afraid :  When President Bush addressed the community at Virginia Tech he said that the victims happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the truth is they were in the right place at the correct time.  They were doing what college students do – going to class.  And the truth of the matter is that these students were shot because of the “principalities and powers” created by America’s love affair with violence, guns and power.” (Congregations, Alban Institute, p. 29)

Politicians simply cannot – and will not – sustain the strength required to keep the mirror of truth before us.  Which isn't to say that politics is bad, just limited. It has always been the work of faith communities and the witness of social and community organizations trained by faith and experience to see the eagle within the egg.

When cynics carp and condemn our notion of the beloved community, we must reply with humility and humor:  if you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.  And let us be clear:  the murder of our children may be currently what we've got, but it must never be what we want.  Further, when those who are driven by fear or greed plot, we must plan.  And organize.  To paraphrase Dr. King:  When the evil burn and bomb, the good must build and bind.  When evil women and men shout ugly words of hatred, the good folk of the earth must commit themselves to the glories of love.

 

(Because) darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiples hate, violence multiples violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars and (guns begetting more guns) - must be broken or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.